When brought to the operating room, a surgery patient is normally clothed with an operating gown with an open back and the gown usually extends down to the middle of the thighs with short or no sleeves. This type of garment provides very little warmth to the patient while in the operating room and is of little aid in maintaining the body temperature of the patient.
The need to control the temperature of the body of patients has long been recognized. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 26,663, issued Jan. 3, 1860, discloses a garment made of India-rubber or the like and including tubular passageways extending therein so that water of the proper temperature can be passed therethrough to maintain the proper temperature of the body of the patient. U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,367 also discloses a body temperature control garment made of a stretchable fabric with fluid flow lines attached to and extending throughout the garment for passing water of the proper temperature therethrough. However, these garments are too expensive to be disposed of after a single use, and they are not suitable for use in operating rooms because it is desirable for the doctor to be able to cut the garment and expose the area of the body where the operation is to take place and the cutting of this type of garment would be economically destructive.
Also, it has long been recognized that body temperature can be retained by wearing long underwear which is manufactured in various sizes so that it will fit the wearer in a snug manner. However, this type of underwear is not satisfactory for use by patients undergoing surgery because it is too expensive to manufacture to be disposable, it is not normally of sufficient stretchability to fit a wide range of sizes of wearers, and it does not normally cover the hands, feet and head of the wearer where a large amount of body heat can be lost during operations.